Share

In December 2018, GEM released the Global Earthquake Hazard and Risk maps to the public, viewed by industry experts as a major milestone in developing a unified view of seismic risk. Since then, the global maps have been downloaded thousands of times and the data behind the maps have also been publicly released. Furthermore, other products derived from the global models i.e. Atlas 1.0 – an interactive global seismic hazard map, and the comprehensive and simplified hazard maps available from GEM and distributor platforms were also released in the succeeding years.

After four years, GEM is set to release the new global earthquake hazard and risk models, maps, and databases through an international conference on June 13th in Bergamo, Italy. The conference will bring leading researchers and risk management experts worldwide together to discuss recent developments and future directions on the road to earthquake resilience.

What’s New?

-The global earthquake hazard model-

The Global Hazard Mosaic consists of 31 models covering the globe, each of which is maintained in its own repository that includes the model input files, and a set of precomputed hazard results (hazard curves, hazard maps, and uniform hazard spectra). 

“The hazard team performed a large-scale update on all the existing models, in which the team improved the homogeneity among independent models, we used a new reference grid (https://h3geo.org/) and increased spatial resolution of the sites at which results are computed. We also extended the intensity measure levels (IMLs) in the hazard curves to higher values, and included more intensity measure types (IMTs) in the hazard outputs”, said Marco Pagani, Hazard Team Coordinator, on what’s new in the 2023 version of the global seismic hazard.

-The global earthquake risk model-

Vitor Silva, Risk Team Coordinator on what’s new with the seismic risk model that will be presented in June said:

“Practically everything. Starting with the exposure component, dozens of new datasets have been incorporated into the national exposure models, and a new algorithm to spatially disaggregate the assets has been implemented. Moreover, given the large inflation observed in the last years and the rapid population growth in some parts of the world, the cost and number of buildings have been updated globally”. 

“On the vulnerability side, additional classes have been added to better represent local construction practices, and now the building vulnerability and the vulnerability of contents are evaluated separately. Several adjustments have also been implemented based on the development of earthquake scenarios considering the characteristics of past events. Finally, improvements in the hazard models are also reflected in the risk results.”

Vitor further added that the new global seismic risk model covers additional risk metrics, some of them focusing more on the human impact, such as human losses and injuries, or the population left homeless. Furthermore, significant efforts have been devoted to the documentation of specific parts of the world, as well as to the collection of data from past events, which is fundamental for the proper verification, validation and calibration of the models. 

Details of both the hazard and risk models and much more will be discussed at the Conference in June!

----------

The event is by invitation only for in-person attendance. It is open for online registration for those who wish to attend virtually. If you would like to attend in person, please contact communication@globalquakemodel.org to request a spot. To join the event online and to learn more about the Conference, please visit https://www.globalquakemodel.org/gem-conference-2023.